Kirsten Anderberg's - MacLaren Hall History Site

All day Feb. 6, 2012, from approx. 12:01 AM until 11:59 PM, you can download my ebook, "American Child Protection History and Los Angeles' MacLaren Hall" for FREE! Click on the book cover above and it will take you to Amazon.com to download the free book! A full description of the book is available on the Amazon site as well.

Photo of a Christmas Party at MacLaren Hall in the 1960's (photos courtesy of the archives of Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Graziano. Mr. Graziano volunteered as the Santa at Mac Hall for years. Finding these photos was an amazing brush with luck, as my Archiving Professor for my Masters Degree, who was aware of my work on Mac Hall as a student, happened to be Mr. Graziano's granddaughter!)

This site is dedicated to Myles Francis Anderberg, my father, who created the whole MacLaren Hall scenario that I lived through for him and his wife as an 8 year old. This man had three children and many grand and greatgrand children, and he has not had a relationship with even ONE of his kids or blood offspring! He is a complete deadbeat dad, thwarting all responsibility. My son says he does not deserve to be called a "man" and I fully agree. This "man" has beaten me, thrown me onto streets as a child and abused the hell out of me. He should be in jail for the crimes he has committed on children, not just me. I am still angry I sat in jail at age 8 for HIS crimes! My sisters and I refer to this "man" whose sperm created us as "dud," not "dad." He was an alcoholic mess when I was his kid and he married this pill-popping woman named Geraldine Siteman Noyes Hopper Anderberg, who was always trying to force illegal speed on all the girls in the home...what a nightmare and what a bunch of irresponsible jerks. When my insane stepmother would go on one of her rants and throw me violently out of the home again, underage, she would yell at me as she would throw me out like trash that she would lie about throwing me out if I was caught out on the streets and would say I ran away and they would send me back to Mac Hall so this "woman" forced me to live like a fugitive on the streets underage in my teens, in fear of returning to Mac Hall. My insane stepmother kept Mac Hall alive in my world all the way up to age 18, even though I was last in Mac Hall at age 8.

MacLaren Hall was a Los Angeles County child protection institution for abused, unwanted, abandoned, orphaned, and neglected children. It was originally intended to keep "non-delinquent" minor (child) wards of the state who were in custody due to familial issues segregated from "delinquent" children who had committed crimes, as all were housed together in juvenile hall prior to MacLaren Hall. And although that was its original stated purpose, it quickly became an overflow facility for the county juvenile hall. In one form or another, Mac Hall was taking in children from the 1940's until 2003, and tens of thousands of children stayed at Mac Hall. It housed 4,000 children a year in 1964. (Los Angeles Times, County's Deprived Children Find a Home Away From Home, (1964, September 16), p. g9.)

letter addressed to kirsten anderberg at maclaren hall, postdated january 1969

Letter addressed to me at MacLaren Hall, from my cousin, postdated January 1969

I was a resident of Mac Hall (and a ward of the state) as an 8 year old child, in 1969. Most of the people who were in Mac Hall, such as myself, were living orphans, in that their parents were alive, but were just grossly incompetent as parents and dangerous to their own children. I can also testify that Mac Hall had many problems inherent to poorly funded public institutions. As a writer and historian, I have begun to collect information about the history of child protection institutions such as MacLaren Hall. I have also begun to compare and contrast the ways disenfranchised populations, especially children, have been treated by society throughout U.S. history.

I was abused as a child by my parents and at age 50, in 2011, I am STILL being abused by them whenever I allow them access to me. My father, Myles F. Anderberg, just sent a 10 page letter to my entire family full of lies, trying to get himself out of his own liability for Mac Hall now that I have outed him on this webpage and in my work, including the first book ever written about Mac Hall. I am going to incorporate his newest letter re this into the page about MY STORY on this site shortly. My mother is mentally ill and always has been, and her recent 2011 ramblings re Mac Hall to try to get out of her liability therein is also bizarre and I will include her version of things in my story page shortly too. Basically her alibi is she sent me to Mac Hall to "teach me a lesson" yet refuses to say what that "lesson" was. She also continues to portray HERSELF as the victim in Mac Hall, not me, the child, and calls me demonic and evil. My point here is CHILD ABUSE LASTS A LIFETIME. You are stripped of all your worth and dignity at a young age. I am still arguing with my parents and family over Mac Hall at age 50 in 2011. We still do not have a functioning family as it BROKE in Mac Hall FOR GOOD. I have not been able to trust my parents, authority, society or police since 1969 when I was taken to Mac Hall. It lasts a lifetime.

I can die in peace knowing I did get this Mac Hall story into print. It was what killed my heart long before my body gave out. My soul will forever be trapped in Mac Hall, whether I am dead or alive. After I die, I am sure you will find me walking Mac Hall halls trying to find my soul I left there at age 8. Mac Hall is a serious offense. That place robbed thousands of kids of HUMAN DIGNITY FOR LIFE with NO accountability whatsoever. Leaving us to just live with what we saw there. With INSANE parents who are still blaming the kids for the child abuse that landed them in Mac Hall. My mother, for example, was NOT the victim by any stretch in Mac Hall. I was the victim. I was so afraid she would literally KILL me at age 8, I went to Mac Hall for PROTECTION FROM HER. I was 8. She was almost 40! But that is the world of Mac Hall - insane parents and abused kids FOR LIFE. I believe Mac Hall ruined my life more than any other thing but for the parents I was forced to live with like a hostage, like inhuman PROPERTY. I still resent what happened to me at the hands of family and the state and will die with those resentments, and may die DUE to those resentments, I don't know. All I know is no one before me had the courage or stamina to write a book about Mac Hall's actual history and I did it and for that, I am proud.

L.A. Times documents bed shortage at MacLaren Hall in this March 24, 1966 article.

American Child Protection History & MacLaren Hall in Los Angeles - $3.99:
This book takes a detailed look at MacLaren Hall, Los Angeles' Child Protection institution open from the 1940's until May 2003. It also presents an historical view of child protection and the foster care system in American history, including the orphan trains, poor houses, work houses, and indentured service. Included are chapters on the history of MacLaren Hall from the 1940's to 2003, Kirsten Anderberg's first-hand story of her stay at MacLaren Hall in 1969 as an 8 year old child, other first-hand accounts of MacLaren Hall, information about MacLaren Hall records, and a study on the history of America's Child Protection services. MacLaren Hall held 4,000 children annually in the 1960's. It was open for six decades. Tens of thousands of children lived in MacLaren Hall over the decades and over a million children have been through the American child protection system. This is an issue that affects huge segments of society, yet it is a hidden topic, rarely spoken of. This is the first book specifically about MacLaren Hall that has ever been written.

I am interested in doing more research on Mac Hall's history and have also begun interviewing adults who were in Mac Hall as children, as well as past staff, volunteers, etc. Via my research, I am filling in many of the blanks that I, and others who lived in Mac Hall, have had about our own childhoods. Many of us could not understand why Mac Hall was run like a jail, with "perimeter security measures, which include flood lights and a 14 foot chain link fence, topped by five feet of wire mesh (barbed wire)," according to a 1960 L.A. Times article. (Charles Gould, Los Angeles Times, New MacLaren Hall to House Juvenile Wards: Sister Kenny Polio Hospital Being Converted by Probation Department, (1960, November 6), p. sg1.) It turns out the Probation Dept. ran Mac Hall throughout the 40's - 70's, and thus, it was run the way they ran their prisons. They even hired "women probation attendants" via an ad run in the L.A.Times in 1961. (Los Angeles Times, Workers Sought for Hall Jobs, . (1961, January 15), p. sg_a15.) Eventually, County Social and Health Services ran Mac Hall.